Friday, 12 September 2008

Back in the Zone

Right, I'm finally back on Planet Earth, and not working, commuting or doing other boring stuff like cleaning. That's next :-(

So, I Knit London! Well, what a day. Totally worth the effort of driving down to Staffs and jumping a train from Derby. Had a great start - arriving at this:

That's St. Pancras, the first time I've been since it was remodelled, and I must say they've done a nice job of it. Feels like a proper station, with its huge clock and glass roof. Like a railway station should be.

I hopped on the Tube (after picking myself up off the floor in shock at the price of a return ticket) and moseyed down to Victoria, and after a slightly shaky start (went the wrong way) found my way to the Royal Horticultural Society's Halls. I knew I was in the right place when I spotted a Gingko biloba tree planted outside, and a small army of people in handknits and Ravelry T-shirts. Ah, yarn people. They were queuing :-)

And what joy was to be found within. Lovely people, good tea (but the greedy yarn people ate all the sandwiches, SOMEONE had no lunch) lots of lovely yarns to squish, and signs encouraging you to squish, a knitted sheep, a catwalk, lots of books, spinning, charity things, giant needles, swifts, spindles, needle cases, project bags...it goes on. You've seen what I bought already. More on that later.

And to top it all off, the High Priestess of knitterly goodness and humour, the Yarn Harlot herself. She's absolutely hilarious. If you get chance, go see her, she's fabulous. Bless her, she looked so utterly terrified I thought she was going to do a runner, we had a bit of a microphone scare and she's only just visible over the podium, but funny, intelligent, wry and thought-provoking. And she brought the sock :-) and the lovely Manon cardi which I must remember to queue in Ravelry. What was also fascinating was watching all the audience knitting whilst waiting. I discovered I love watching other people knit. Everyone knits differently. Every. Single. Person. I think that's fabulous.

So what did I buy? Well, you've seen it all, so here's a brief run-down of what its all for. The red Lace Silk will probably be a Swallowtail, or similar. The lilac cashmere is for Laminaria, when I feel brave enough. The Loaghtan is for a Hemlock blanket. Manos del Uruguay will probably be a Crofter's Cowl (link to Ravelry), and the fibre is for practising. I have no idea if its suitable for spinning as it is or not, but I've had a little play with it and it seems to draft reasonably well (get me, I sound like I know what I'm talking about) so I think it should work.

And now I need to stop for a little while with the yarn purchasing I think. I have enough, and there's a lot of, for want of a better term, crap. Squeeeky acrylics, novelty fluff and random ends. I need to shift it one way or another as it's starting to bug me. If I can either use it up or offload it, it won't be weighing on my mind, and if I stop buying for a little while I can afford some nicer stuff. I'm not declaring a yarn diet, if I see good yarn at a bargain price I'm certainly not going to walk away because of some self-imposed restriction. I'm just re-evaluating :-) So I've been browsing Ravelry for scrap patterns and afghans, and some I might even cart off to the charity shop just to be shut of it (a lot is stuff I've inherited from my family so its not like its cost me anything.) The last couple of months seem to have been expensive, what with having to get new clothes that fit me for the new job, buying season tickets and lampshades and curtain poles, not to mention travelling down to Staffs (two tanks of petrol per trip, ouch) and of course the IKL show, so I'm drawing my horns in a little to save for Christmas and for a sofa.

However I will make a small exception to my curbed consumerism to buy the new Spore computer game. Just because.

And now, if you'll excuse me, the landlord just delivered four dining chairs which need my gentle ministrations with a scrubby brush, polish and a darned good hoovering.